Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Saarinen Icon to be Open to the Public

It is hard enough to find a house designed by Architect, Eero Saarinen, never mind finding one that you can visit and tour. That is all about to change. The Miller House is about to join the ranks of a handful of modernist houses such as Fallingwater that are open to the public.

The Miller House, designed for late J. Irwin Miller, former chairman and co-founder of the Cummins Engine Company in Columbus, Indiana has been given to the Indianapolis Museum of Art by the Miller family. After a brief freshening-up the museum plans to open the modern house for tours in a town known as a destination for modern architecture junkies.

Mr. Miller gained fame among Modernists when he started the Cummins Foundation, "a charitable program which helps subsidize a large number of architectural projects throughout the city by up-and-coming engineers and architects." The first of these projects was the First Christian Church designed by Eero's father Eliel Saarinen in 1942. In 1954, Eero would design the Irwin Union Bank which was recently designated as one of the rare modern National Historic Landmarks by the National Park Service. The younger Saarinen also built the Columbus North Christian Church in 1955 before designing the J. Irwin Miller Residence in 1957.

The Irwin residence is also highlighted by modern gardens designed by Landscape architect Dan Kiley (Kiley designed the west gardens of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of art) and interiors designed by Alexander Girard.

I, for one, am planning a trip to see the house as soon as it opens. This could be our first KCMODERN bus tour to see the house and other modern landmarks around the city of Columbus, Indiana.